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Community chips in after thieves steal 400 lbs of crawfish from local business

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BATON ROUGE - The Baton Rouge community is helping a local business owner bounce back after thieves stole 400 pounds of crawfish right before his restaurant's busiest weekend of the year.

Von Raybon, the owner of Pit-N-Peel on Government Street, told WBRZ that the burglars snatched about 12 sacks of crawfish from a truck parked behind the restaurant early Thursday morning.

The theft cost the business roughly $1,200 in sales and hamstrung the employees just days before Easter Sunday, one of the biggest days for crawfish boils in the state of Louisiana.

After WBRZ broke news of the heist Thursday afternoon, people from all across the region decided to pitch in and help one of their favorite mudbug vendors.

"It's been electrifying. The community has embraced us," Raybon said. "We have donations, we've gotten calls of appreciation for what we're doing."

Customers stopped by all throughout Thursday and Friday to donate money, some of them coming from as far away as Kenner.

Raybon says the biggest donation came from a crawfish farmer who donated about 200 pounds of live crawfish, replacing about half of what was stolen Thursday. He says the farmer also pulled some strings and was able to help him secure another 130 pounds for the busy weekend.

"Overall, I think it's been a positive outcome."

The owner said he hopes to sell through about 5,000 pounds of crawfish this holiday weekend.

Police are still looking for the thieves who made off with the crustaceans.